Huimio, the creators of the Tunemio mac and now globally launched iPad app, announce they have raised roughly €95,000 led by digital services provider and investor Reaktor, as well as a few private investors. Their app can be likened to a Sports Tracker of music practicing, and seems like a good tool for any aspiring musician.
The idea behind Tunemio got its roots with CTO Ville Kaksonen, who has been a semi-formally trained vocalist for around 20 years. “He noticed that he gets the same comments from his teachers over and over again from mistakes he doesn’t hear when he’s singing. That brought us to the first insight that you can’t really effectively analyze yourself,” CEO Ville Lavonius tells us.
So the result was first a Mac app, and now a globally launched iPad app allowing you to plug in and record your music practice. Clearly there are a lot of professional and open-source tools on the market that allow anyone to record audio, but Tunemio focuses more on practicing and repetition – again like a sports tracker. In the app you can see your past practices and additionally practice and re-record the tough parts of a song over and over again and hear how you are evolving.
The app tries to make it easier for you to practice as well. Tunemio also plugs you in to Apple’s iTunes, where Kaksonen says there’s actually a deep catalogue of karaoke songs (which singers could use as a backing track) or guitar friendly songs like Led Zeppelin tracks with guitarist Jimi Page’s parts removed, for instance.
“The only way to improve is to repeat, and we give a tool for all instruments, tools, and skill levels. We made the approach so easy that the user doesn’t need to know much about recording, and doesn’t have to understand a complex production application,” says Kaksonen.
The app is free to download, but they’re going freemium to monetize. Users can record up to 30 minutes per week for free, but to go onwards, then you need to buy the full upgrade for €4.49.
In the future the company will be building up more of an online component with more social features, as well as exploring the gamification features to keep users motivated to keep practicing.
